New Industry Products

Toshiba Debuts Smart Nonstop Power Supply System

October 19, 2000 by Jeff Shepard

Toshiba Battery Co. (Tokyo) has developed a compact UPS small enough to fit inside a typical PC. Called the Smart Nonstop Power Supply System, it was developed in cooperation with Nihon Protector Co. (Hyogo, Japan) and utilizes small, thin nickel-hydrogen batteries in place of the conventional lead-storage batteries and only one, rather than three, voltage converters. The new power supply system takes up 240 cubic cm of space, less than one-twentieth the volume of traditional UPSs.

Toshiba Battery will begin marketing the device, which weighs only 1kg, this December 2000. Priced at just under 50,000 yen, or a little over US$400, Toshiba plans to target companies, the small-office market and

individual consumers. The company is aiming for sales of 100,000 units in the first year and 200,000 units per year after that.